Rio (U) ***

EASTER is coming, so the film companies are rolling out all their family films featuring cute animals.

EASTER is coming, so the film companies are rolling out all their family films featuring cute animals.

Last week we had Hop, about an adorable bunny, and this week it’s our feathered friends who take centre stage (along with a few monkeys) in Rio.

The latest offering is colourful, exotic and occasionally fun, and will keep kids amused, but it may have adults a little bored before the end.

It’s directed by Carlos Saldanha, who’s cut his teeth on the Ice Age movies but now goes to the other temperature extreme by setting a film in his home city of Rio de Janeiro.

Blu (voiced by The Social Network’s Jesse Eisenberg, who can’t even escape playing a nerd when he’s a bird) is a blue macaw, born into the heat of the South American jungle but ending up in snowy Minnesota after being captured by smugglers.

Here he is rescued by a little girl, Linda (Leslie Mann), who grows up with Blu as her constant pampered companion.

He’s so domesticated that he drinks hot chocolate with marshmallows and can’t even fly.

Their existence is challenged when ornithologist Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) tracks them down, revealing that Blu is the last male of his kind and he wants to mate him with Jewel (Anne Hathaway).

They’re not keen on travelling to Rio to meet her, but are persuaded to do it for the future of the species. The parrots don’t exactly hit it off.

He thinks their new cage is ‘awesome’ while she just wants to escape, warning him “you can’t trust humans”. Which proves correct when both birds are stolen, and it becomes an adventure for them to escape and be reunited with Linda.

Other characters include thieving comedy monkeys, a toucan and birds voiced by Jamie Foxx and Will.i.am.

There’s a great villain in evil cockatoo Nigel, voiced by Jemaine Clement, a New Zealander who puts on the requisite English accent, because all baddies are British.

I am not nearly so keen, though, on a horrible slobbering dog called Luiz, voiced by the annoying Tracy Morgan. Perhaps it’s an indication of how realistic the 3D animation is, but I’d rather not be subjected to its repugnant drool.

Rio has its moments – hang gliding over Sugarloaf mountain, Copacabana Beach and the Christ the Redeemer statue is a real highlight, along with its colourful depiction of the carnival which almost makes you want to get on a plane to fly there.

But all the bright colours and characters can’t disguise the thin plot and superfluous songs, plus the feeling we’ve seen much of this before in other films like Madagascar.

Rio isn’t a dud by any means, but it’s nothing to get in a flap about. Given the choice, Hop is better.